276 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
based on information collected from the explorers and the reports 
they sent home. Sloane says: 
Martyr says this Fruit was brought to the American Isles, but, that many were found 
naturally in Peru, it may be doubted whether they were not brought thither by the 
natural Currents of the Sea.@ 
Sloane does not tell us where such a statement is to be found in 
Martyr’s writings, nor does De Candolle appear to have considered 
it necessary to verify the reference for himself. A search through 
the English version of Martyr’s Decades used by Sloane might have 
lessened confidence in the idea that the palm was introduced by the 
Spaniards. 
The name ‘‘coco”’ was not mentioned by Martyr in his accounts 
of America, though there were many references to palms, which the 
early English translator turned into ‘‘date trees,”’ the date being the 
only palm well known in Europe at the time. Even in the last cen- 
tury we find English travelers referring to Brazilian species of Cocos 
as ‘“‘dates,” as in the following instance: 
Still we were skirting palm-trees, among which the grass grew to a great height. 
One of the things we had from the Indians yesterday was the date-palm. Its fruit 
grows in clusters, looking like a colossal bunch of grapes; the outer shell is thin, and 
contains a sweet, yellowish substance, of which the Indians are very fond, covering a 
nut like a filbert, with the flavour of the coconut, containing the kernel from which 
the oil is extracted.) 
In addition to the fact that both are fruits of palms, there is a 
notable external resemblance between dates and coconuts as they 
hang in large clusters among the bases of the leaves. The only strik- 
ing difference is that of size, which is commonly disregarded in popu- 
lar comparisons. Indeed, Martyr himself was familar with the idea 
that the products of America often exceeded those of Europe in size.° 
@Sloane, Hans, A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, etc., vol. 2, p.9. (1725.) 
> Mulhall, M. G., Between the Amazon and Andes, pp. 183, 184. (London, 1881.) 
¢ Martyr did not understand that the Indian corn of America was a different 
plant from the cereals of Europe, and hence found it difficult to credit the report 
that the wheat in Santo Domingo produced ears thicker than a man’s arm, 
... The lyke encrease commeth of wheate if it be sowen vppon the mountaynes 
where the colde is of sume strength: but not in the playnes, by reason of to much 
fatnes and rankenes of the grownde. It is in maner incredible to heare, that an eare 
of wheate shuld bee bygger then a mans arme in the brawne, and more then a spanne 
in length, bearynge also more then a thousande graynes as they all confesse with one 
voyce, and ernestly affirme the same with othes. Yet they say the bread of the 
Tlande (cauled) Cazabbi made of the roote of Jucea, to bee more holsome, because it is 
of easyer digestion, and is cultured with lesse labour and greater increase. The 
residue of the tyme which they spende not in settynge and plantynge, they bestowe 
in gatheringe of golde.—Martire, Pietro, The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West 
India (1516), trans. by Richard Eden (1553), in Arber, E., The First Three English 
Books on America, p. 168. (Birmingham, 1885.) 
